Anna, I thought you did as good a job with pairing up words and image on the last one, but this one took it a whole step further. Love the way you paired them here. Such a cool process and experience. Thanks.

Thank you, inspiring is a great compliment. I believe that artists should try any form that appeals. Some mediums I’ve expressed through: dance composition, painting, photography, sculpture, music composition, jewelry making, singing, playing an instrument, art toys, metalsmithing, digital art, poetry, fiction, songwriting, screenwriting etc. Why rein in the creative impulse when we can learn so much from each endeavor?

This is an amazing piece Anna. I think (personally) it’s one of your best yet. As each slide was slow enough to read and to appreciate both picture and prose, it was so much more readily absorbed for its content. The music simply added to the relaxing feel overall but, what an accomplished piece. It was both informative and yet, so immensely enjoyable. Truly a lovely piece of art, yes, that is what it is, art in action.

Well as I joked with Joe a couple of weeks ago I have no sense of proportion and too much ambition :). That is a super cool narrow gauge railroad that runs from Durango to Silverton. It was featured in many Westerns including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I rode in an 1890s car that was used by 4 former Presidents to cross the US. Silverton is in the San Juan Mountains, some of the most beautiful country in the world.

wow anna…beautiful pics…and the right environment to ask these questions… you create a cool atmosphere with this..the music…slide show…words..works well together..
what is the ultimate substance…? you dive deep into philosophy and existential questions here..
(P.S. the white letters on the snow pic were hard to read)

Thank you Claudia, sorry about the difficult slide (I was in a hurry and didn’t notice). These are some ancient questions that we still struggle to answer today and there’s the question if philosophy is responsible for some of these detrimental ideas, how useful is it in creating a solution? However, it seems that without an ethic we’re unlikely to change our attitude toward environmental issues. I always appreciate your visits!

I really enjoy the way you do this. So interesting, so engaging. I liked the line about conservation not touching certain parts of the world because religion and philosophy had not yet heard of it. I certainly think that humans have this way of almost rationalising the destruction of the world as something ‘outside’ of their own doing- like it’s nothing to do with them – like they are separate to nature. I guess it will be painful when we realise that’ve are not. Great work again Anna- and stunning scenery!

Your comment got lost in spam again, sorry about that. Aldo Leopold was one of our greatest conservationists and an early ecologist, he died in 1948 but I don’t think much has changed about his quote since he said it. He was an early proponent of modern environmental ethics. All the photos are from the American West, mostly Colorado. Thanks Stu!

Anna, first I love the music which reminds me on some level of a personal Grand Canyon Suite. And among many wonderful lines and thoughts, I especially like the one about the infinity of seeds. You pose such interesting questions–I think about all kinds of civil rights movements–from racial ones to gender–and there is some fundamental change in philosophy, some acceptance of the “other” as the same, I guess, or human or worthwhile or valuable. There is such a reluctance to accept the “humanity” that is the vulnerability of the planet–and the humanity behind its destruction, and of course, there is too a ton of greed. What seems awful to me is that forces of greed sometimes seem to co-opt religion turning it all anti-science. Drives me crazy. Terrible situation. Don’t think I’m making much sense, but you probably understand what I mean. K.

The infinity of seeds was Anaxagorus’ philosophical contention which I found poetic :). I love what you’ve said here about the civil rights movements and the vulnerability we can’t accept. I do understand what you mean and appreciate you sharing your thoughts, lots to ponder!

Wow – you’ve gone all multi-media on us Anna. How will the rest of us keep up (and I mean that)..huge talent went into your conception and realization. Vast thought went into its contents. Questions answered but will there be common consensus enough to affect change or will we (smaller than the who’s in whoville) be able to affect change even in the sea of our “manyness” in order to erase the malignancies and allow the natural order to resume? Thought provoking as well as a sensuous delight.

Thanks Gay, I was inspired to try again after Saturday’s post. I am in a constant state of frustration with philosophy (which is largely misogynistic as well) yet can’t stop coming back to it for answers or more importantly questions. I think the question of how to affect change and maintain value pluralism is an excellent one. Ecology is in its infancy yet it is needed now more than ever before in history. The Greeks (and the Medieval and Enlightenment scholars that followed their lead) didn’t see any point in gaining knowledge through the observation of natural phenomena which greatly truncated and curtailed western civilization’s understanding of nature. Glad to know it provided room for thoughtful consideration and appealed aesthetically (something the Greeks also devalued).

Very, very, very nice. It’s not a religious thing, but I treat everything as if it is alive. I do not like to waste anything and not use even a crumb of what it was created for. Strange yes. But that is what I thought of with this piece. I love nature, trees and have even been jailed trying to save an old oak. At any rate, excellente presentation. Luv your mind.

Thank you Henry for your service to our planet, I don’t know many people who’ve been jailed for their convictions. My grandmother was heartbroken when they tore down a golden willow tree to put in a McDonald’s parking lot.

Anna… it is tragic that those who make environmental decisions that affect our planet..and therefore all of us..are wearing suits and sitting in cityscapes.

This journey of images, music and thought was both calming and energising. It is important to keep these huge questions alive and your creativity here is a wonderful way of doing just that. I thank you. The music deeply led how I read the words and visuals. Beauty.

If this was a rush job, I’m agog to see a major project with no time constraints.. 🙂

Thank you Becky, I think you hit on an important point as nature ends up being ‘out of sight, out of mind’ for politicians and company executives. You mention calming and energizing which brought to mind the complaint I’ve long had about environmental engagement. It seems to take a doom and gloom, fear based approach. I often get charitable solicitations from organizations I support with horrific or fear inducing images/text. That may get more money in the door temporarily but having worked in the nonprofit sector I found that no one wants to work for a lost cause, there has to be a sense that the problems are solvable, that progress is being made. I think it’s important to engage people in a way that doesn’t simply frighten, depress, or cause them to shut down. This is my little way of putting out some food for thought without the melodramatics or scare tactics of some groups. Or at least that’s what I told myself as I worked ‘on the fly’ today for NaPoWriMo.

Yes a poem in service of ecology. I am studying a subject in management at the moment and yes ecology is out of frame. Very frustrating! An optional nice to have rather than a fundamental building block and discipline. We do need better philosophy governance and action to move humanity beyond population growth and economic growth to a proper custodianship. Trees are always beautiful.

Anna, Take if for granted that the writing and the ideas are right on. I just want to comment on the quality of the presentation, the photos, the music, the words, the integration of all…just a wonderful presentation. Thanks for putting it all together. I’ll remind myself of your efforts the next time I’m wrestling over a mere word…Great work.

I really like these that you do! I waited till I got home where I could properly watch it.

The music suits the mood of the words, long notes of pondering, bits where the music picks up speed, a part where it sounded sad at how attitudes are, ending a little louder, but gentle as if correcting a child and more hopeful.

The pictures are awesome. I love mountains, such awe they inspire indeed!

Beauty is the predecessor of awe. I think the producers and makers of the BBC documentary series “Planet Earth” has that idea as they made that documentary. We forget or don’t know what we have. And it is hard sometimes I guess, we have such struggles with ourselves.

I too love mountains and we have some stunners in the West ern US (in Colorado alone there are 54 peaks over 14,000 feet and the 30 highest major summits of the Rocky Mountains of North America all lie within the state.) In addition Colorado has Grand Mesa the largest mesa in the world. Some of the pictures are from Utah and New Mexico (which border Colorado). I have ‘Planet Earth’ on DVD and love it. Thanks so much for your feedback :)!

Clever! Language – words and concepts related to the image and then the gap’ between these exposed and made part of the interaction. This being done on several levels( what seen/what understood/what felt) with music adding a whole other dimension.

What’s interesting is that once you look to combining art, poetry and music in a single performance where word and not song is the medium you start tapping back into some deep roots and avant-guard nooks! William Blake saw these as the works of imagination through which you access Eternity.

Thank you for a glimpse into the experience from the outside as I often have difficulty gauging the effectiveness of my work when I see the architecture of intent so clearly. An intriguing idea to reach back and forward at the same time, I admit to doing it often in art, trying to find connecting points. Well, if you find the inroads to Eternity as hinted at by Blake tie some ribbons to the trees along the way as I’d love to follow. I appreciate your thought provoking comment.

I am immensely impressed, immensely. The music itself is pretty impressive, and combined with the thoughts and images, you’ve created a very affective and affecting piece. I hope you continue to do these pieces. Excellent work. BTW you didn’t read my prompt for next time, did you? 🙂

Robert Anton Wilson

Semantic noise also seems to haunt every communication system. A man may sincerely say, ‘I love fish,’ and two listeners may both hear him correctly, yet the two will neurosemantically file this in their brains under opposite categories. One will think the man loves to dine on fish, and the other will think he loves to keep fish (in an aquarium).

Witold Gombrowicz

“Here is the writer who with all his heart and soul, with his art, in anguish and travail offers nourishment – there is the reader who’ll have none of it, and if he wants, it’s only in passing, offhandedly, until the phone rings. Life’s trivia are your undoing. You are like a man who has challenged a dragon to a fight but will be yapped into a corner by a little dog.” Ferdydurke

I’m an Executive Director with a doctorate in education, a consultant, painter, photographer, composer, poet, and vocalist.

Gustav Flaubert

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.

Dušan “Charles” Simić

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Monique Wittig

"Language casts sheaves of reality upon the social body, stamping it and violently shaping it... Language as a whole gives everyone the same power of becoming an absolute subject through its exercise. But gender, an element of language, works upon this ontological fact to annul it as far as women are concerned and corresponds to a constant attempt to strip them of the most precious thing for a human being - subjectivity. Gender is an ontological impossibility because it tries to accomplish the division of Being. But Being is not divided. God or Man as being are One and whole. So what is this divided Being introduced into language through gender? It is an impossible Being, it is a Being that does not exist, an ontological joke, a conceptual maneuver to wrest from women what belongs to them by right: conceiving of oneself as a total subject through the exercise of language. The result of the imposition of gender, acting as a denial at the very moment when one speaks, is to deprive women of the authority of speech, and to force them to make their entrance in a crablike way, particularizing themselves and apologizing profusely. The result is to deny them any claim to the abstract, philosophical, political discourses that give shape to the social body. Gender then must be destroyed. The possibility of its destruction is given through the very exercise of language. For each time I say 'I' I reorganize the world from my point of view and through abstraction I lay claim to universality. This fact holds true for every locutor. "

W.S. Merwin

All the things that really matter to us are impossible...Writing poetry is impossible. I don't know how to write a poem. A poem - there has to be a part of it that is not my own will; it comes from somewhere that I don't know. There is so much that comes out of what we don't know and what we don't have any control over. I think that one of the only things we can learn as we get older is a certain humility. - from Doing the Impossible, Yes Magazine, Issue 59

Thomas Aquinas

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.